On April 26, 2009, five years ago this week, I arrived in Seattle, ready to start my new job as Online Marketing Manager at GameHouse (part of RealNetworks) on Monday, April 27. This is part two of the story of how I got there (read part one)…

Having just been laid off as Marketing Director at Capital Newspapers, I grabbed some things from my office and took off for home.

It was nearly what passes for rush hour in Madison as I left the parking lot and turned right onto Fish Hatchery Road. I got about 100 yards from the office when a woman in a white car in the left lane decided she wanted to occupy my space in the right lane. So she just started merging right into me. Fortunately, there was a bike lane to my right or I would have jumped the curb and ended up in the lawn of the elementary school located next to Capital Newspapers.

She ended up hitting my front fender and causing some damage. We both pulled over and she got all mad at me saying I was in her way. Excellent.

The police showed up about 30 minutes later and ended up issuing her a ticket.

So there I stood on the road outside of the workplace from which I was just laid off as all of my former co-workers drove by. Several of them stopped to say they had just heard I was laid off and share some kind words.

Sure, I had orchestrated the lay off and was already excited to head to a new job, but no one else knew that. To everyone who drove by, this was just insult to injury.

But it all ended well. My department was very loyal to me (as I had been to them), and they let me in the next day to take all of the awards I had earned, all of my artwork, my office furniture and a few other personal items. Fortunately, where our department was located was formerly a loading dock, so I was able to pull right up with a truck and load up all of my things.

In the end, I enjoyed my 10 years at Capital Newspapers. I was given and created a lot of opportunities, and I think I seized and made something of nearly all of them.

But I was still ready for the next step of my career.